Millrose Games notebook: Luthin falls short of expectations

NEW YORK — Tim Luthin said half of the satisfaction of competing in the Millrose Games is just getting there. Unfortunately, that's all Luthin is going to take from his experience.

Ken McMillan

NEW YORK — Tim Luthin said half of the satisfaction of competing in the Millrose Games is just getting there. Unfortunately, that's all Luthin is going to take from his experience.

The Stanford-bound senior from Warwick was preparing to start his kick toward the front of the field in the boys' mile when the unthinkable happened Friday night. Zavon Watkins of Liverpool got his feet tangled up with another runner and started tumbling to the indoor track at Madison Square Garden. Luthin moved wide right in a bid to avoid the falling runner, but Watkins fell right into Luthin's path and they both fell.

"I just couldn't avoid him and went down,'' a disappointed Luthin said. "Once you are down in a race like that with two laps to go, there is no coming back from that.''

Luthin said it's all part of track and field, but it hurts nonetheless.

"I have a pretty good kick,'' Luthin said. "I would have liked to see where I would have ended up.''

Luthin placed eighth out of 10 runners, in 4 minutes, 30.34 seconds. Chad Noelle of Greene won in 4:16.71, a scant 0.17 seconds ahead of Matt Jablonski of Loyola Blakefield.

Monroe-Woodbury earned a pair of silver medals in the 3,200-meter relays, coming from far behind in both events.

Sean Egan, Pat Rooney, John Leonick and Ryan Brennan finished in 8 minutes, 12.35 seconds in the boys' race. Penn State-bound Brennan was in fourth place and over 80 meters behind when he took the baton for the final leg. He passed two runners and pulled within three seconds of victorious Christian Brothers Academy of New Jersey.

"I didn't know whether I should go for it,'' Brennan thought before getting the baton. "After I finished my first 2½ (laps), which is 400 meters, I knew I went through it pretty fast for this track. My last two laps, I wanted to give up so bad but I didn't want to put in that effort on the first 400 for no reason so I tried to finish it and we came up just short.''

The M-W girls wanted to get out fast with Randi Gomez and Kelsey Esselman but were sixth at the first exchange and dropped back to eighth by the second. Sabrina Brooks passed two runners in quick fashion and two more before handing the baton to Christina Zelenoy, who shot into third place and settled in behind a runner from Lenape (N.J.). Zelenoy waited to pass until just before the backstretch on the final lap, and finished in 9:37.02, almost 10 seconds behind Bronxville.

"I wasn't sure what I was going to do,'' Brooks said. "I was like just do what I can do. When I got us into third I was ecstatic. I knew Zel was an amazing anchor and could put us into second.''

Defending 1,600 girls' champion Newburgh Free Academy had three of its legs returning but ran into problems from the outset. Lead leg Doris Little developed a stitch in her side and dropped from third to sixth. D'Yanna McCaskill hurt her wrist during warmups and made up just one place. Tiyi Boone moved up two spots on her first lap and took a slight edge for second but faded back to third before her exchange. Saleen Matta closed the gap quickly on Columbia and Freehold but could not pass and faded into a solid third position.

Former Loch Sheldrake resident Queen Harrison made her pro debut in the 60-meter hurdles. The 2008 Olympian did not have a good start in her season debut and had to settle for fourth place in 8.19 seconds.

In morning weight throw competition at the New York Armory, T.J. Servino of Monroe-Woodbury (63 feet, 2 inches) and Dominique Darby of Tri-Valley (45-3.75) each placed sixth.